Strand package



STRAND PACKAGE Filed April 27, 1925 Jan. 4, 1927.

Y J. E. BARBOUR Aam/Er.

jPatented Jan. 4, `1927.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

STRAND PACKAGE.

Application-filed April 27, 1925. Serial No. 26,030.

The object of this invention isto provide a twine or the like package for use by carpet workers and others using twine in sewing in which the twine will not only be in standard lengths but from which the user can readily detach the lengths or strands one by one as he needs them without snarling the package.

ln the accompanying drawing, y

Fig. 1 is a plan view illustrating the package diagrammatically, only one of the two counterpart end portions of the package, which may be of any length, being shown; and

Fig. 2 is a magnified view of one of the strands, with intermediate portions thereof broken away.

a indicates the strands of twine or other filamentous material suitable for use in sewing, this invention not being specifically concerned with the material of the strands, so long as they are freely flexible. They are all approximately of the same length, say three or four feet.

The strands exist in the package braided together loosely, as shown diagrammatically in Fig. 1, and so that the ends of all the strands approximately coincide with -each other. The braiding is indicated at b in Fig. 1 and in the present case extends from a transverse line (approximately at c) removed from the end of the package shown in said figure to a corresponding line the same distance from the other end of the package (not shown in the drawing), the absence of a braided .condition at the extreme end portions of the package being due to the impossibility of maintaining the braiding clear to the ends of the package even if it were actually carried out to that extent.

It is an important feature of the invention that `the strands be loosely braided, since Votherwise in the effort to withdraw a single strand it will exert a dragging influence on the others and this will produce a snarling r of the strands in the package, even if the strand to be withdrawn 1s grasped yat a point intermediate its length (instead yof at one end) and pulled on in that way.

To facilitate removal of the strands one by one, both with respect to singling them out and reducing the tendencyA of the strand which it` is intended to remove dragging along snarling, the braiding is preferablyI edected with respect to fiat or band-like groups of others with it and so producing a the strands. That is,l the strands are arranged first in groups, in each of which all the strands are side by side in the same plane and have their ends substantially coinciding, and then these band-like groups are braided together. This is the condition actually shown in Fig. 1 of the drawing. This results in a desirable paralleling of the strands which facilitate singling the1n`y out and it reduces the bends in -each strand and consequently the binding. point of each strand on the others and thus minimizes the tendency of any strand to drag others out with it when it isitself pulled upon to withdraw it. -I have said that the ,ends of the strands approximately coincide, and this is true also of the ends of the strand groups. But T do not lwish to convey that there is necessarily alinement or even approximatealinement of such ends across the package, as appears in Fig. 1.

Tt will be understood that the pattern of the braiding is entirely immaterial, although the simple pattern shown is preferred because itfacilitates the individual removal of the strands.

When the package has been formed as described, one or both ends thereof (preferably both ends) are subjected to a singeing treatment if the strands are formed of fibrous material. This leaves all the ends in transverse alinement and at the same time removes the fibres of all the strands at their ends by a single operation, the result of removing `the fibres being to permit each strand to be readily threaded throughlthe eye of a needle by the user. Figl 2 shows at al the end of a strand a (magnified) singed in this manner and thus more or less charred and thus pointed. As to this part of thelinvention it ,isV not broadly material whether the strands be. braided or otherwise intertwined to produce a unitary mass of them, but it is important that the intertwined mass be a band that is flat because that facilitates the performance of the fibre-eliminating step and insures uniformity of the results of that stem.

Having thus fully described my invention 'what d claim and desire to secure by Letters 1 Patent is:

1. A strand package comprising groupsof freely flexible strands vof approximately equal lengths, the strands in each group having their ends at each end of the group all approximately in coincidence with each nemesi other, and the 'groups being loosely braided together and having their ends all approximately in coincidencewith'each other.

2. A strand package comprising band-like groups of freely flexible strands of approximately equal len hs, the strands in each group having their ends at each end of the group all approximately in coincidence with each other, and the groups being loosely braided together and havin their ends all approximately in coincidence with each other.

3;' The method of forming a package of fibrous strands which consists in intertwining the strands with each other inthe form of a flat band and so that at one end of the band thus formed the ends of the strands will appro ately coincide with each other and finallylninating fibrous projections by a single operation from all said strand ends at one end of the package. l

4. The method of forming a package of fibrous stra-nds which 'consists in intertwining the. strands with each other in theform of a fiat band and so that at one end of the 1 package thus, formed the ends of the strands approximately coincide with each otherV and finally by a single operation pointing the strand ends at one end of the package.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

JOHN EDWARDS BARBOUR. 

